Apps by Detlef Hoche

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Practise and learn handwriting on the IPAD
Until the 1960s, children practiced handwriting on a slate board with a stylus. They could practice for a long time and there was no waste. Nobody knows, if we need to put pen to paper in the future. Will writing become superfluous because we will only talk to voice assistants? Certainly paper will no longer play the current role. Nevertheless the National Curriculum for primary schools, introduced in 2014, gives more weight to handwriting than the previous curriculum. This app was developed to learn handwriting in a similar way to the slate on the IPAD. For this purpose, a ladybird shows the children the way through the letters. We are curious whether this will be an effective way to learn handwriting. First they use a non-joiner font to trace the letters. Then the letters will be joined for a legible and fluent handwriting. You can choose between different rulings. In addition, there is a basic vocabulary on which the age-appropriate words can be practiced. You can also enter your own words. For the beginning you can write with your finger. If you don't have a pen, you can buy a simple pen later. Such pens are available in all price ranges. We have also achieved good results with very inexpensive pens. But it works best with the pencil from Apple.

The word or letter to be written is given in light green and can then be traced with your finger or a pen.

If you call "Help me", a ladybird will run in front of the pencil to show how the letter is written. If you don't follow the rule, it doesn't go on and you have to start all over again. If you know the writing direction, you can write without help of the ladybird.

You can also set the font size so that you can start with finger and large font and then gradually reduce the font until you reach booklet size. In the end you should use a pen.
In a second step, the parents or the teacher can create exercise sheets and print them on paper. Drag words from the table on the left or from the text field at the top of the table onto the exercise sheet shown on the right. The latter could be selected in the upper right corner. By adjusting the font size you can adjust the number of lines and their size. The printed words contain arrows which indicate the writing direction. The children can then also follow the word or write freely in the lines. If writing on the iPad is too modern for you, you can use only the printouts.
ATTENTION: Before drawing the words you have to longpress the word. The keyboard must not be active when dragging from the text field.


A basic vocabulary is attached to the program. You first select the first letter on the left side, then you can choose on the right side a word beginning with this letter. In the upper line you can also enter your own words. The joins the letters appropriately and also calculates the way through the word.

Get the app from Apple App-Store.